1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for updating programmable logic devices (PLDs).
2. Description of Related Art
Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
One of the areas that has seen considerable advancement is the use of programmable logic devices or ‘PLDs.’ PLDs are used for glue logic, power control, translation of interfaces such as I2C to SPI, debugging interfaces, isolation of failed boards, a variety of boot functions and power-on-self-test or ‘POST’ and for many other system-level computer operation functions known to those of skill in the art. The exact use of any particular PLD changes from one computer design to another—as well as within any particular computer design from time to time. This is a particular strength of PLDs—that system designers can change their functions even within the same system over time as needs evolve or designs improve.
Such changes in function, updates to PLD configuration instructions, however, are laborious to carry out in single computer systems, and in multi-node computers, such as symmetric multiprocessing systems, for example, such updates are extremely laborious. Such updates in prior art systems may include, for example, requirements to:                connect a separate floppy drive to each compute node        insert a separate bootable PLD update disk into each floppy drive on each compute node        boot all compute nodes        hurriedly press ESC on a keyboard of each compute node to effect a boot in stand-alone mode—as opposed to SMP mode—noting that if the user misses an ESC press, the user has to start over with the boot because the system will proceed to attempt an SMP boot        update the PLD configuration instructions on each compute node        power cycle each compute node separately, cutting all power, not just a warm boot        reboot all compute nodes in SMP mode through service processors.        